Alexa Lopez will make her West End debut as Mimi in RENT, as the producers complete the company for Jonathan Larson’s musical at the newly renamed Tom Stoppard Theatre this autumn.
The company is now complete for RENT, and the headline of the announcement is a West End debut: Alexa Lopez takes the role of Mimi when Jonathan Larson’s musical opens in the West End next month.
Lopez steps in for Bella Brown, who has withdrawn from the production after sustaining an injury before rehearsals began. The producers describe it as a difficult decision on Brown’s part.
Alexa Lopez comes to London from the immersive off-Broadway staging Masquerade, based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, in which she played Christine. She made her Broadway debut in Sondheim’s Old Friends, played Cosette on the North American tour of Les Misérables, and originated the role of April in the world premiere of Falcon Girls at the Yale Repertory Theater.
She joins a principal line-up announced earlier: Gaten Matarazzo as Mark, Travis Ross as Roger, Billy Nevers as Collins, Lazy Violet as Maureen, Olivier Award nominee Danielle Fiamanya as Joanne, Jeevan Braich as Angel and Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Benny.
Completing the cast are Baylie Carson, Laura Delany, Ryesha Higgs, Montoya Holloway-Johnson, Rhys Hopkins, Shem Omari James, Hannah Macpherson, TJ Matara-Holloway, Ryan Nixon, Leah Vassell, James Wilkinson-Jones and Kevin Yates.
The run marks 30 years since the show first played Broadway. Performances begin on 26 September 2026 at the Tom Stoppard Theatre — the house currently known as the Duke of York’s — with opening night on 8 October 2026, and the production is booking through to 27 March 2027.
Set in New York’s East Village and drawing on Puccini’s La Bohème, the show follows a circle of young artists and musicians making a life on their own terms, and weighing love and ambition against the odds.
Music, lyrics and book are by Jonathan Larson. Luke Sheppard directs, with choreography by Tom Jackson Greaves, set design by David Woodhead, costume design by Gabriella Slade, lighting by Howard Hudson, audio production and sound design by Paul Gatehouse, video design and cinematography by George Reeve and Nathan Amzi, and make-up and hair design by Jackie Saundercock. UK casting is by Pearson Casting CSA, CDG, CDA and US casting by Jim Carnahan CSA. Bill Sherman is musical supervisor, Katy Richardson musical director and associate musical supervisor, Asha Jennings-Grant intimacy director, Priya Patel Appleby associate director and Joe Trill dialect coach.
The West End production is produced by Chris Harper Productions, Sonia Friedman Productions, Winkler & Smalberg and Julie Larson, in association with the Hope Mill Theatre.
